Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed reading it. Although it is exaggerated there is truth in this one. I have come accross more silly thoughts from my co-workers.

sybil6

07-22-2010, 12:07 AM

I only get 3 visible threads here

iamscottj

07-29-2010, 07:18 AM

Lols... Good one. Keep such posts coming :) I really liked the way its introduced. Especially using Word for a database. This was the funniest part of all. And Word is a spreadsheet. Awesome!!! :D Nice developers.

lol i would use excel as a database all the time... too lazy for access or sql

dtommy79

08-22-2010, 02:50 PM

Thanks for sharing :)

dmarmolejos

08-30-2010, 03:55 PM

that was funny!

Zayne

09-04-2010, 03:16 PM

Argh broken link, what was it?!

tagnu

09-05-2010, 06:19 AM

Here you go, link from way back machine
http://web.archive.org/web/20080822212319/http://neopoleon.com/home/blogs/neo/archive/2003/09/29/5458.aspx

wildreason

09-05-2010, 11:23 AM

OMG. So two VERY awesome replies in the comments. One, a funny one:

The next stage, of course, is that the techie replies that the image in Excel is 'unreadable' meaning machine unreadable. The marketeers then conclude that they need a higher resolution scan of the information. This leads to the 97000 USD annual scanning contract being given to Johnson's friend, Tarquin, who runs a 'multimedia agency' called 'Fried Black Pepper' to provide a 67000 DPI scan of the data, delivered on an Apple formatted SyQuest cartridge.

What do you mean it's still not readable.

This one should ring home to truly talented and professional developers.

<Observation>Funny pictures, but where's the ones of a technical guy, providing his insight rather than silently ridiculing those that do speak up?</Observation>

OK, so these folks are technically illiterate to the degree that is hilarious to us folks who invested their high school and college education, and in fact much of adult life, to pursuit of excellence in the computer field.

The marketing folks have skills in other areas, depth and sophistication of which, being not as clear to us as our own, we tend to diminish much like they do with respect of complexity of the technical challenges we face, and the prowess required to solve them.

So we could choose to retract into our mollusk shell of a computer geek and only be really effective when people and situations mold itself into conformance with our narrow "interface" requirements, ridiculing everything else. The organizations who have these people know they need them, but the attitude towards them is that of a necessary evil.

... Or we could choose to step out of the shell and devote a real, ongoing effort to finding points of contact with these non-technical folks, gradually allowing us to convey technical issues in ways that resonate with them. This would ultimately allow us to "sell" the team on adopting better practices and investing in building higher quality, longer-term solutions than they would in lieu of your insight.

Your choice. The latter gets you more respect and pays better.

It's usually the responsibility of a director/manager of some sort to be the liaison between the development and business side. So in a properly managed business, this really shouldn't be a problem. But even without a go-between any developer with properly developed social skills should be able to communicate effectively with the business side and use that to create a solution that works for all parties.

I've said it a million times: we only exist because of these "idiots" ideas and capital. So I guess we all tell ourselves what makes us feel better. But at the end of the day, we are nothing more than a "utility". A little dose of humility and perspective. :)

lgpc

09-06-2010, 12:16 PM

lol. that was funny..

bestdeveloper

09-06-2010, 02:27 PM

Join the posts of others concerning the gratitude,
a very interesting and funny article, indeed